SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) -- Sean Elliott scored eight points during
a decisive 19-2 burst spanning the first and second quarters as
the San Antonio Spurs rolled to an easy 100-82 rout of the
road-weary Boston Celtics.

Elliott, who did not score or take a shot in nine minutes off
the bench in Wednesday's 101-99 home loss to the Los Angeles
Lakers -- his first game back after missing 20 games with a
shoulder injury -- was not gun-shy on Friday.

He entered the contest for Danny Ferry with 5:50 left in the
first quarter and the Spurs holding a 12-9 lead and proceeded to
hit his first shot, drilling a 24-footer that extended San
Antonio's lead to 27-19. Avery Johnson followed with a
three-point play, giving the Spurs an 11-point cushion entering
the second quarter.

Elliott fed Antonio Daniels for another 3-pointer, grabbed a
rebound and hoisted up a 22-footer from the left sideline that
swished through for a 35-19 advantage less than two minutes into
the period. He buried a 25-footer on San Antonio's ensuing
trip, making it a 19-point bulge with 9:09 remaining in the
first half.

Elliott left the floor for Derek Anderson moments later,
receiving a loud ovation from the crowd of 24,996 at the
Alamodome. But the veteran forward was unable to return due to
a nagging knee injury.

"He's disappointed and frustrated," San Antonio coach Gregg
Popovich said on Elliott's behalf. "It's his knee. He has
what's called an `IT Band' in his knee that tightens up and
makes it tough for him to keep going. It locks up on him."

Anderson netted 20 points and Tim Duncan added 18 and 10
rebounds for the Spurs, who bounced back nicely from narrow
losses to Milwaukee and the Lakers.

"It feels good to get a win against a team that has the
potential to beat us," Anderson said. "We needed to respond and
it was good that we did. We just had to come out and play. We
couldn't worry about what anyone was saying about us. We had to
play and we did."

San Antonio improved to an NBA-best 23-5 at home.

"We needed this one real bad," Duncan said. "It's the first
half of a back-to-back and we wanted to re-establish ourselves
on our homecourt. We wanted to work on our focus and we wanted
to start and finish strong."